The Red Umbrella Read Online Free Page B

The Red Umbrella
Book: The Red Umbrella Read Online Free
Author: Christina Gonzalez
Pages:
Go to
yourself in a new place?”
    “Better than being stuck here,” I muttered.
    “You think your mother and I enjoy saying no to you? We only want the best for you, to protect you.
They
don’t care about breaking up families. It’s actually what they want. To destroy the family so the only thing left is the revolution, just like Karl Marx suggested.” Papá shook his head. “And this so-called revolution continues to go after anyone who dares to think. To disagree.” Papá sighed. “Lucy, it’s just so complicated …”
    “It’s complicated because you and Mamá don’t understand that I’ve grown up!” Tears rose in my eyes. One blink and they’d land on my cheeks. “You are so unfair!” I turned and raced up the stairs. I slammed my bedroom door and felt a scream rise up in my chest. Now I understood why the soldiers got so angry. People like my father couldn’t see that the younger generation wanted Cuba to change for the better. They didn’t see all the good things that the revolution could do. He’s so stubborn, I thought. Why can’t he be like Ivette’s father?
    I caught my breath as I heard Papá coming up the stairs. I didn’t want to confront him again. My heart beat faster. I’d never raised my voice at him before. Thefootsteps stopped right outside my door. After a few seconds, I heard them continue down the hall.
    I slowly exhaled.
    Stupid
gusano
.
    *  *  *  *  *
    The smell of onions and garlic brought me down to dinner. As much as I didn’t want to see Papá, I figured maybe my mother could reason with him.
    “Mi
hija
, can you get the glasses, please?” Mamá took out a starched linen tablecloth and snapped it open over the kitchen table.
    I walked past the open kitchen window and took the glasses from the cupboard. “Mamá you’ll let me go to a Jóvenes meeting with Ivette, right?”
    She shook her head. “Don’t try playing me against your father. I know he doesn’t want you going.”
    I set the glasses down and reached into the kitchen drawer to take out the silverware. “But …”
    “There’s no need for you to get involved with the revolution … it won’t last. It never does. I’ve seen Cuba go through so many leaders, all of them with their promises. Each of them just as corrupt as the one before.”
    “Yeah, but this time it’s different. You know that.”
    “I know that this revolution is jailing good people. That decent, God-loving priests and nuns are being kicked out just because they dare to voice their concerns about what’s going on. Different is not always agood thing.” Mamá went to the stove to flip over the
palomilla
steaks. “Plus, now that your father is running the bank, he hears things.”
    “Like what?”
    “Like the fact that Ivette’s mother is involved with the CDR,” Papá said as he walked into the kitchen and took his seat at the head of the table.
    “Hmm, the Committee for the Defense of the Revolution … now it makes sense,” Mamá muttered.
    Papá flashed her a strange look.
    “No, Fernando, nothing bad. She called me this morning to ask why we weren’t more involved with the revolution. She said we seemed ‘suspicious.’ She suggested I send Lucía to the Jóvenes meetings and that Frankie go to the Pioneros group … so we could show our loyalty.”
    Papá shook his head. “Who do we have to prove anything to?”
    “Maybe I should join something, just so that there isn’t talk,” Mamá offered.
    “No, Sonia. We do what is required and that’s it. But we need to be careful with that family; the CDR are glorified neighborhood spies.”
    I couldn’t believe how judgmental Papá was being. I’d read the newspapers and knew how much the revolution wanted to help people. It said that the factories had been closed because the owners were giving all their profits to foreigners and that the churches hadbeen infiltrated by American sympathizers. Castro had no choice but to have the government take over many of the
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